Getting out of our union meeting, I was reminded how lucky I am to be working in a profession where people can still organize. The last time teachers got a raise in LA Unified was seven years ago. Now negotiations have reached an impasse and tomorrow we are boycotting our weekly staff meeting, which we’ll do again next week and the week after that. Will we strike as they did in Chicago? Maybe. Will we win eventually? Without a doubt.

As Diane Ravitch mentioned at last year’s NPE conference, we own social media, and as filmmakers are proving all over the country, much of the most compelling social media is video. From Michael Elliot’s shorts on the mounting resistance to Common Core to  Lena Jackson’s film about the reconstitution of LA’s Crenshaw High, filmmakers are spreading the word.

Where did it all begin? Maybe in 2007, three years before Waiting for Superman was released, when Arne Duncan’s Renaissance 2010 was six years old. Back then Chicago teachers Jackson Potter and Al Ramirez made Renaissance 2010-On the Frontlines, a film about one of the worst single attacks ever on our public schools.

Now is a good time to remember their efforts. As we look forward to the second NPE conference in Chicago, we have learned that together our voice is great.

To view Renaissance 2010-On the Frontlines in its entirety click HERE.